Los Angeles Housing Authority

Two officers of the Los Angeles Housing Authority Police Department were awarded the Police Medal on Friday for "bravery or heroism above and beyond the normal demands of duty," the first time the department has bestowed such an honor in its 16-year history. In February, Officers Brent P. Talmo, 30, and Lyndon L. Cullen, 27, were taking a dinner break at a Denny's in Culver City when a car smashed through a restaurant wall, shattering glass and trapping several customers under debris.

Work is underway on Metro @ Compton Senior Apartments, a $19.5-million housing community near several transit stops, including the light rail Metro Blue Line. The project is being developed by Meta Housing Corp. of Los Angeles, which specializes in building subsidized housing for families and senior citizens. Residents of Metro @ Compton must be 55 or older. The County of Los Angeles Housing Authority helped fund the 75-unit complex under construction at 302 N. Tamarin Ave. in Compton.

Michael H. Salzman, former executive director of the Los Angeles Housing Authority, has died at his retirement home in Santa Barbara. He was 75. Helen Salzman, his wife of 52 years, said he died Thursday. He had been suffering from the effects of a 1987 stroke. Salzman, formerly of Long Beach, served as head of the housing agency from 1971 until his retirement in 1979. Before that appointment, he was a principal planner for the city of Los Angeles.

In a few months, the Los Angeles County Housing Authority will begin allowing rent subsidies to be granted to homeless ex-convicts on parole or probation. The move is controversial, with some critics complaining that it rewards criminals, giving them special treatment and moving them to the front of the line for the limited and much-sought-after subsidies. But that's shortsighted. Homeless ex-convicts, including many who committed only minor, nonviolent crimes, don't go away if they don't get housing aid. Although there are risks associated with the new rule, they're risks worth taking.

Barry Smith, 56, caught my attention Tuesday morning when he stuck his head into a dumpster at the Jordan Downs housing complex to dig for recyclable containers. When he came up for air, I asked if he'd heard the latest scandalous news about the spendthrifts at the Los Angeles Housing Authority. No, said Smith, he'd been busy scraping to get by. So I told him about the newest outrage. Not only did the housing authority board quietly agree to a $1.2-million payout to the chief they fired last spring, Rudy Montiel, but an audit by City Controller Wendy Greuel and a report by KCET's "SoCal Connected" have revealed lavish travel and dining expenses, as well as perks for employees, including $4,500 spent on Land's End sweaters.

Starting June 1, the Los Angeles Housing Authority will once again take applications for a waiting list for housing for low-income people, senior citizens and the disabled. The agency stopped taking applications last June when it had more than 24,000 and fewer than 100 vacancies each month among its 8,600 units. But by dropping no-shows and ineligible applicants, the list was cut to just over 10,000, said Lucille Morris, director of housing management.

In "Agency Takes a Bite Out of Housing Police" (Feb. 3), HUD spokeswoman Nancy Segerdahl was reported as saying the federal government should not be held responsible for the policing reductions in housing projects run by the Los Angeles Housing Authority, as the authority is not told how to spend its money. I would argue that HUD is responsible, because not enough money has been given to the authority to tackle the dual issues of housing-project maintenance and policing. In spite of funding shortfalls, the Los Angeles Housing Authority used perhaps its most important resource--people--to create workshops wherein community members and the police could work together to address security and safety issues.

Work is underway on Metro @ Compton Senior Apartments, a $19.5-million housing community near several transit stops, including the light rail Metro Blue Line. The project is being developed by Meta Housing Corp. of Los Angeles, which specializes in building subsidized housing for families and senior citizens. Residents of Metro @ Compton must be 55 or older. The County of Los Angeles Housing Authority helped fund the 75-unit complex under construction at 302 N. Tamarin Ave. in Compton.

The theft of a toilet has resulted in a $6,000 fine and an order for a former Los Angeles Housing Authority official to perform 22 hours of community service. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Aurelio Munoz placed William Palmer, 54, of Compton on three years' probation and gave him a 360-day sentence in County Jail. The jail sentence will be suspended if he pays the fines and performs the community service. A complaint filed by Deputy Dist. Atty.

Indie cinema: In the Dec. 20 Business section, an article about independent cinemas facing competition from major chains said that Pacific Theatres opened its first ArcLight location at the Westfield UTC Mall in Hollywood. The ArcLight is on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Westfield UTC, where ArcLight plans to open a multiplex next year, is in San Diego's La Jolla area. Housing authority: An article in the Dec. 9 LATExtra section about a settlement paid by the Los Angeles Housing Authority said that board president Mitch Kamin had served since June.

Barry Smith, 56, caught my attention Tuesday morning when he stuck his head into a dumpster at the Jordan Downs housing complex to dig for recyclable containers. When he came up for air, I asked if he'd heard the latest scandalous news about the spendthrifts at the Los Angeles Housing Authority. No, said Smith, he'd been busy scraping to get by. So I told him about the newest outrage. Not only did the housing authority board quietly agree to a $1.2-million payout to the chief they fired last spring, Rudy Montiel, but an audit by City Controller Wendy Greuel and a report by KCET's "SoCal Connected" have revealed lavish travel and dining expenses, as well as perks for employees, including $4,500 spent on Land's End sweaters.

The name Antelope Valley evokes a picturesque desert-scape where pronghorns once roamed and people now live quietly in rambling homes on spacious lots. But a recent lawsuit suggests a less peaceful image of the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale in the northern reaches of Los Angeles County. According to the suit, county housing investigators, sometimes accompanied by posses of armed sheriff's deputies, regularly roust residents on public housing assistance — known as Section 8 vouchers — to see if they are in compliance with the strict rules of the federal housing assistance program.

Los Angeles' housing authority board voted Monday evening to fire the agency's chief executive, Rudolf Montiel. The move comes less than six months after Montiel faced the wrath of city leaders when his agency tried to evict nine tenants who had protested housing authority policies at Montiel's Rancho Cucamonga home. At the time, City Council members called Montiel "childlike" and accused him of acting like "Big Brother. " The eviction notices were later rescinded. Montiel has headed the agency ?

I propose this addition to "50 Ways to Love Your Dodgers" [March 27], under the heading "Know Your History": Meet the Ghosts of Chavez Ravine: To appreciate where you are, you need to understand where you've been. Before Chavez Ravine became Dodger Stadium, it comprised the neighborhoods of Bishop, La Loma and Palo Verde, home to more than 1,000 people. The anti-communist hysteria of the 1950s derailed the City of Los Angeles Housing Authority's progressive ideal of building state-of-the-art low-income housing on the site, and the land was eventually sold to the Dodgers.

Federal auditors have called for the ouster of the Los Angeles County Housing Authority's director, saying his agency has not properly administered the $200 million federal housing voucher program for the county's poor and has sought to conceal its shortcomings. The unusual recommendations come in a report this month that criticizes the authority for failing to check annually, as required, on tenants' eligibility for subsidies under the federal Section 8 program.

Criminal charges were filed Monday against four people accused of swindling the Los Angeles Housing Authority out of $44,500 in rent subsidies, the city attorney's office said. Deputy City Atty. Ellen Friedmann said complaints were filed in Los Angeles Municipal Court against Saundra Denise Towns, 44, of Mesa, Ariz., Mary Lee Carter, 47, of Vallejo, and Odessa Wilkes, 24, and Bernadette Ransom, 45, both of Los Angeles.

Indie cinema: In the Dec. 20 Business section, an article about independent cinemas facing competition from major chains said that Pacific Theatres opened its first ArcLight location at the Westfield UTC Mall in Hollywood. The ArcLight is on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Westfield UTC, where ArcLight plans to open a multiplex next year, is in San Diego's La Jolla area. Housing authority: An article in the Dec. 9 LATExtra section about a settlement paid by the Los Angeles Housing Authority said that board president Mitch Kamin had served since June.

When Rudolf Montiel came from El Paso three years ago to clean up the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, he didn't know enough to be daunted. It didn't take long, however, for him to get a sense of the challenges ahead. Precious vouchers for the poor and disabled seemed to be for sale on the black market, allowing hundreds of newly arrived immigrants to jump to the top of a 10-year waiting list for housing subsidies.

The chief investigator for the Los Angeles Housing Authority, Abel Ruiz, was abruptly fired this week after complaining that people inside the agency interfered with his efforts to get to the bottom of an $800,000 bid-rigging scheme, his attorney said Friday. Housing Authority Executive Director Rudolf Montiel said that he could not comment on a personnel matter but denied any coverup.